


let me down slowly (a little sympathy i hope you can show me)

by anxietywrites



Series: the endgame fix it fics my brain needs [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 10:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxietywrites/pseuds/anxietywrites
Summary: Avengers: Endgame spoilers ahead!This is a fix it for... that scene. You know the one.Title taken from Let Me Down Slowly by Alec Benjamin.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I saw Endgame lastnight, and I have many emotions. They manifested themselves into this fix-it fic. I wrote this in an hour, so all mistakes are mine. 
> 
> Hope this makes things a little better. They deserved a better ending. I definitely can't do them justice, but I tried my best :)

“Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.” Steve had said. Bucky knew what he was supposed to say back. 

“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” He said, but it felt different. Final. Steve pulled him in for a brief hug, it probably lasted two seconds but it felt like hours for Bucky. 

He was trying to memorize everything. The feeling of Steve in his arms, his blue eyes staring into Bucky’s with an unreadable expression on his face. His last words to him. His last time with his best friend. 

“I’m gonna miss you, buddy.” He said, and if either of them noticed his voice cracking, they didn’t mention it. 

“It’ll be okay, Buck.” Steve said, before turning around and stepping onto the time travel platform with the case of the stones. 

Bucky knew what he was going to do. How could Steve not go to Peggy? He could, should, and would live out his life with her. This is how it was supposed to be anyways. After Steve crashed the Valkyrie, it was suffice to say both of them had given up on having any semblance of a normal life. 

This was Steve’s second chance at a normal life, and Bucky, for once, was torn. Torn between being selfish and asking him to stay in the present with him, and telling him to go back and live the life he missed out on. He looked up, and Steve was gone. 

“5..4..3..2..1.” Bruce counted down, and flipped the switch. Nothing. 

Bucky tried to ignore the pounding in his chest, the hitching in his breaths as he tried to wrap his head around the idea that Steve was gone. Bucky turned around and headed for the trees. He needed time to think. 

“Where did he go?”

“He missed his mark.” 

As he was walking, Bucky was vaguely aware of Bruce and Sam scrambling to bring Steve back, but he was too focused on the spinning of his own head. Steve had really done it. He was back where he belonged. 

Was Bucky surprised? A little, but he supposed he shouldn’t have been. He made his way into the trees, just to think. He would come out eventually. He just had to wrap his head around the idea that his best friend is really gone. Whatever happened to “’til the end of the line”? He thunked his head back against the tree he was leaning on and closed his eyes. 

It was a good run. 

He was far enough in the trees, and swimming in his own thoughts enough that he didn’t register the zap. Didn’t register the relieved breaths of Sam and Bruce. Didn’t register Steve standing on the platform, looking around wildly. Didn’t recognize the voice he knew he had always loved saying “Guys, where’s Bucky?” 

“I don’t know, man. Think he went into the trees. Probably thought you weren’t coming back.” Bucky registered that as Sam’s voice. No. He was slipping. Auditory hallucinations. He took deep breaths in, willing the two voices he heard to go away. 

He managed to lean off the tree, open his eyes and put one foot in front of another. He walked back to the clearing where he saw Bruce, Sam, and Steve… wait. He closed his eyes, and opened them again. Closed them tightly and opened them again, but this time was greeted by the sight of his best friend staring at him. 

“Steve?” He croaked, and Steve flinched upon hearing that tone of voice with that specific word, but walked closer to him. Bucky was vaguely aware of Sam and Bruce walking away, giving the two super soldiers some space. 

“Told you it’d be okay, Buck.” Steve said. 

“Punk.” Bucky said, and this time, when he hugged Steve, it lasted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They talk this time.

Chapter 2

Later, they were sitting outside, admittedly closer together than was necessary, but neither of them cared too much, and to break the silence, Bucky said “I thought you weren’t coming back.” 

Steve took a sharp inhale. “How could I not come back to my best guy?” Steve’s voice was soft. 

“I thought, and honestly kind of internally encouraged the idea of you going back to live out your life with Peggy. It’s what you deserve.” Bucky objected. 

“I thought about it, Buck. But then she yelled at me and told me, in more words, to get my shit together and come back to you.” Steve said, “She lived her own life. And I want to live my own, now. And I don’t, and haven’t, ever seen a life of mine that you’re not in, somehow.” 

Bucky scoffed at that, “Pal, you were without me for seventy years. That’s a lifetime in and of itself.”

“I was frozen for that. And then I woke up, and was thawed, and yes, you were gone. But then I found you, and Bucky, I swear I never wanted to be anywhere else.”

“But I wasn’t me.” Bucky said, referring to his time in HYDRA’s clutches.

“Maybe not, but you were still there somewhere. And I knew—Bucky, we’ve been over this. When I went back today, yes, I talked to Peggy. And I realized some things. I don’t think there’s ever been a time where I wasn’t head over heels in love with you, Bucky. Even with Peggy, it was always you. I loved her, sure, but you were something else. Something bigger.” 

Bucky’s brain short circuited. “I.. Steve. I, fuck, I love you too. I always have. I’ve always wanted the best for you, and if that was Peggy, sure I would have been sad seeing you go, but seeing you happy is something that always makes me happy.” 

“You make me happy, Buck. Don’t ever question that. And I want to make you happy.” 

“You already do.” Bucky choked out, why was he so emotional lately?

Steve laced their hands together, and as Bucky looked at Steve, he saw their past, their challenges, their successes, and most of all, he saw their future. 

They could get through anything. It was gonna be a great run.


End file.
